e. He--he--has forgotten me--"

Helen looked at her quickly.

"Why, I don't understand," she said.

"I mean," she stammered, "he used to notice us common girls--me and
the others--"

"I don't understand you," said Helen, half indignantly.

"Oh, don't pay no 'tention to me," she said. "I, I fear I am sick,
you know--sicker than I thought," and she coughed violently.

She lay with her head in Helen's lap. "Please," she said timidly,
looking up into Helen's face at last--"please let me stay this way a
while. I never knew a mother--nobody has ever let me do this befo',
an' I am so happy for it."

Helen stroked her face and hair anew, and Maggie kneeled looking up
at her eagerly, earnestly, hungrily, scanning every feature of the
prettier girl with worshipping eyes.

"How could he he'p it--how could he he'p it," she said
softly--"yes--yes--you are his equal and so beautiful."

"I don't understand you, Maggie--indeed I do not."

Maggie arose quickly: "Good-bye--let me kiss you once mo'--I feel
like I'll never see you again--an'--an'--I've learned to love you
so!"

Helen raised her head and kissed her.

Then Maggie passed quickly out, and with her eyes only did she look
back and utter a farewell which carried with it both a kiss and a
tear. And something else which was a warning.

And Helen never forgot.

CHAPTER V

PAY-DAY

It was Saturday afternoon and pay-day, and the mill shut down at six
o'clock.

When Helen went in Kingsley sat at the Superintendent's desk, issuing
orders on the Secretary and Treasurer, Richard Travis, who sat at his
desk near by and paid the wages in silver.

Connected with the mill was a large commissary or store--a cheap
modern structure which stood in another part of the town, filled with
the necessaries of life as well as the flimsy gewgaws which delight
the heart of the average mill hand. In establishing this store, the
directors followed the usual custom of cotton-mills in smaller towns
of the South; paying their employees part in money and part in
warrants on the store. It is needless to add that the prices paid for
the goods were, in most cases, high enough to cut the wages to the
proper margin. If there was any balance at the end of the month, it
was paid in money.

Kingsley personally supervised this store, and his annual report to
the directors was one of the strong financial things of his
administration.

A crowd of factory hands stood around his desk, an